RedState Paradise lost and found and other knickknacks of mild schizophrenia

One little quote from Marco Rubio on the "ambiguity" of scientific fact and Erick Erickson goes utterly, hilariously, exotically crazy:

I absolutely believe it. I absolutely believe if by [judgment] time a person has not chosen Christ, he will end up in a very bad place. I believe in Heaven and Hell and the battle that rages between the two on a higher plane than we can often see.

That's nice. It's also about the time one begins inching away from the speaker. If the tin foil loosens, this dude may become violent.

On the other hand I'm delighted that Erick has so cleverly secured his place in eternal bliss. I very much hope he enjoys his stay there, even as he absorbs the "reality" that his friends and relatives who chose not to "choose Christ" lie rotting and stinking in a burning Hell, forever.

Comments

[japa21]

I am not going to get into theology here (at least not much) but Erick son of Erick is stating something that not even Christ is purported to have said.
Sure, Paul, the obsessed convert may have said something along that line, but not Jesus.
According to John, Christ said "No one can come to the Father except through me." He does not say someone must believe in me. Rather he always presented himself as a sort of gatekeeper.

Anyway, Erick son of Erick is one of those "Christians" who typify religious arrogance, not humility. Unfortunately, all religions have their own counterparts of Erick. It is not the religions themselves that are the problem, it is those who state that they and only they and others like them really know what it is to be Christian or Jew or Muslim.

[AnneJ]

It is people who talk like that that led me on my journey towards atheism. I used to be told by born again bible thumpers that I was going to hell because I didn't believe the way they did. I always used to think "If people like that are going to heaven, then I think I prefer hell". Now I don't believe in either.

[Peter G]

And so Erick, who opens his screed with a biblical quote: "Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?" and proceeds to commit exactly the same offense. He knows his God couldn't possibly have relied on evolution to bring us to our present state? He knows the seven phases of creation are done and we are not stuck somewhere in phase five or so. He knows all things about his God's plans for a nomadic scribe long ago told him so. He doesn't know that many of the things he believes will be the litmus tests that determine your eternal placement in heaven or hell are perfectly acceptable to various Christian denominations, Catholics for example. This is perfectly consistent I suppose with the Republican belief that heaven will be populated pretty much exclusively with Evangelical Christians from red states.

[Robert Lipscomb]

:-)

[Turgidson]

^"...Republican belief that heaven will be populated pretty much exclusively with Evangelical Christians from red states."

As AnneJ said so eloquently above, I'll take my chances with hell if that's who I'm going to find in heaven. (I also don't believe either exist, though)

[Marcia S]

Peter G: "Erick, who opens his screed with a biblical quote: 'Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?' "

Erick carefully omitted the source of this quote. It's from the book of Job, in which a deity who bears a suspicious resemblance to one of the Hellenic or Roman gods makes a wager with the Adversary that Job's faith can't be broken. In other words, Job's suffering has no meaning other than his being a pawn in a wager inspired by vanity.

When Job understandably demands an answer, his god indulges in both sarcasm and adolescent swaggering and boasting about his achievements. The book of Job is a jaw-droppingly cynical work.

Yahweh morphs into Zeus combined with Peer Gynt. How inspiring. Clergy have been quoting from the book of Job for decades-to-centuries, always depending (successfully) on the failure of the faithful to actually read it.